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South Africa’s Ramaphosa Calls on G-7 to Donate IMF SDR Rights

South Africa’s Ramaphosa Calls on G-7 to Donate IMF SDR Rights

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for Group of Seven nations to donate their allocation of special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund to poorer countries in order to help them recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

While the Washington-based lender is to make $650 billion available to its members, the bulk of the funds will go to developed economies with African nations set to receive only $33 billion. About 25% of the total allocation, equivalent to around $162 billion, should be made available to African countries, Ramaphosa told reporters Sunday after he participated in the G-7 summit. He joined the meetings at the invitation of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Globally, poorer countries need to deploy $450 billion to rebuild their economies over the next five years and accelerate their income convergence with advanced economies, according to the IMF.

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